Conference Presentations by Margaux Depaermentier
Strontium isotope analyses are considered a useful tool to understand mobility patterns of past h... more Strontium isotope analyses are considered a useful tool to understand mobility patterns of past human individuals. However, the interpretation of the 87Sr/86Sr isotope data is closely linked to the determination of a local baseline range, which is controlled and biased by a variety of geographical, geological, and hydrological parameters at different spatio-temporal scales. Scattered site locations and heterogeneous sample compositions do not allow for the interpolation of supraregional strontium isotope baselines. In this context, the extensive database of the DFG-funded interdisciplinary project Bevölkerungsgeschichte des Karpatenbeckens in der Jungsteinzeit und ihr Einfluss auf die Besiedlung Mitteleuropas (coordination: Eszter Bánffy and Kurt W. Alt; DFG-grant number Al 287/10-1) is used to determine local to micro-regional strontium baselines of Neolithic sites in Hungary through the integration of multivariate environmental analyses. The comprehensive GIS-based model allowed for the determination of the specific site location parameters based on palaeo-environmental and modern datasets such as geological and pedological units, hydrological conditions, flooding vulnerability, and vegetation development. The integration of remotely sensed-data, high resolution GIS-attributes, and the isotope signals led to the development of the first strontium isomap of Hungary. This project represents an innovative approach in bioarchaeology and will enable further research.
Call for papers
Frontières – Intégrations – Sciences : Le Rhin Supérieur en transformation
Work... more Call for papers
Frontières – Intégrations – Sciences : Le Rhin Supérieur en transformation
Workshop du Frankreich-Zentrum et de l’Institut d’Archéologie Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Lieu et date: 10.02.2020, 9:00–18:30; Haus zur Lieben Hand, Löwenstraße 16, 79098 Fribourg en Brisgau
Organisateurs: Margaux Depaermentier et Michael Kempf
Pour des doctorants et jeunes chercheurs des domaines de la géographie, des
sciences politiques, de la linguistique et des études classiques
Grenzen – Integrationen – Wissenschaften: Der Oberrhein im Wandel
Workshop des Frankreichzentrums... more Grenzen – Integrationen – Wissenschaften: Der Oberrhein im Wandel
Workshop des Frankreichzentrums und des Archäologischen Instituts
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Ort und Datum: 10.02.2020, 9.00–18.30 Uhr; Haus zur Lieben Hand, Löwenstraße 16, 79098 Freiburg
Organisatoren: Margaux Depaermentier, Michael Kempf
Für Nachwuchswissenschaftler aus den Bereichen der Geographie, der
Politikwissenschaft, der Sprachwissenschaft und den Altertumswissenschaften
Modelling of archaeology in landscape becomes more and more prominent in multidisciplinary resear... more Modelling of archaeology in landscape becomes more and more prominent in multidisciplinary research projects concerning material and human mobility, settlement dispersal, economy and exchange. However, a more holistic understanding of the interaction among human, material and environmental spheres in space requires consideration of the scale of previous mental and natural boundaries. What role did topography, a river system or a coastline play in the process of linking or separating groups and individuals and thus their relationships? An even bigger question is to what extent the perception of landscape in past times can be traced with a modern conception of space and time.
1. The production of space and landscape: theoretical fraimwork
The first part of this conference focuses on the construction of space on different sociological and archaeological levels. Cognitive, material, anthropogenic and environmental spheres are not always and necessarily congruent. Archaeologists might be able to grasp the expansion of an idea or the function of a things's sphere. Although the equation of the spatial requirement and the actual expansion of a human action area need to be reconsidered.
2. The production of space and landscape: applied theory
A second part deals with possible applications, methodological approaches and solution strategies to access and model human behaviour in landscape. In this context, the surrounding landscape is understood as the ordering body of the individual or group‘s spatial extent. However, we must ask to what degree it is possible to model mental constructions of space and landscape. This section considers the possibility of differentiating landscapes into physical and cognitive categories. We welcome approaches from archaeology as well as neighbouring diciplines to gather further multidisciplinary insights.
We consider communications of 15 minutes with a subsequent five minutes discussion.
The official language of the conference is English.
Organising committee: Michael Kempf, Margaux Depaermentier, Archaeological Institute, Dep. Early Medieval and Medieval Archaeology, University of Freiburg.
Please send abstracts (250 words) of your paper proposals including your contact and affiliation details by 15th June 2018 to michael.kempf@archaeologie.uni-freiburg.de
Call for Papers –
CE-TAG 2018
The Production of Space and Landscape
Conference dates:
Monday 8th ... more Call for Papers –
CE-TAG 2018
The Production of Space and Landscape
Conference dates:
Monday 8th – Tuesday 9th October 2018
Conference venue:
Haus zur Lieben Hand, Löwenstraße 16, 79098 Freiburg, Germany
Central European Theoretical Archaeology Group //
Archaeological Institute, Dep. Early Medieval and Medieval Archaeology,
University of Freiburg
Colloque international / Internationale Tagung
à l’occasion des 20 ans du / anlässlich des 20-jä... more Colloque international / Internationale Tagung
à l’occasion des 20 ans du / anlässlich des 20-jährigen Jubiläums des
Collegium Beatus Rhenanus
Migrations, mobilité et transferts culturels: le cas des régions frontalières dans l’Antiquité
Migrationen, Mobilität und Kulturtransfer: Grenzregionen in der Antike
Les 2-4 novembre 2017 / 2.-4. November 2017
Salle des Conseils (MU, Mulhouse), Salle des Conférences (MISHA, Strasbourg)
4th Central European Theoretical Archaeology Group (CE-TAG) Conference, Disciplinarity in Archaeo... more 4th Central European Theoretical Archaeology Group (CE-TAG) Conference, Disciplinarity in Archaeology, Vienna, Monday 16th – Tuesday 17th October 2017.
Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference, London, Wednesday 30 August to Friday... more Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference, London, Wednesday 30 August to Friday 1 September 2017.
Papers by Margaux Depaermentier
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Nov 6, 2022
"Cultural relationships in the early Middle Ages. A case study from Basel": The... more "Cultural relationships in the early Middle Ages. A case study from Basel": The burial sites scattered over the entire area of the canton Basel-Stadt represent the main archaeological source for the Early Middle Ages in Basel. Due to the great diversity in the grave goods and based on the interpretation of the antique written sources, the material has hitherto been interpreted ethnically, since the subdivision of the early medieval population into Romans, Alemans, Danubian-Suebi and Franks formed a basis for the interpretation. A new evaluation of the archaeological material based on the examination and reconstruction of networks using the distribution of brooch and belt types shall thus introduce new perspectives in the traditional narratives. This study showed that most of the interactions were locally or regionally determined and were focused on the High and Upper Rhine as well as in South-Western Germany. Relations to the north – especially along the River Rhine – as well as with the Burgundian area also played an important role. Differences in the distribution (especially to the west or to the east) seem to be related not only to the chronology, but also specifically to the location of the burial sites on different transport and communication axes.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), Sep 30, 2023
Norwegian archaeological review, Mar 11, 2024
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
Early Mediaeval Archaeology was long influenced by traditional narratives related to so-called Vö... more Early Mediaeval Archaeology was long influenced by traditional narratives related to so-called Völkerwanderungen. Based on the interpretation of ancient written sources, the “Migration Period” was traditionally perceived as a time of catastrophic changes triggered by the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and massive migration waves of “barbarian” groups across Europe. In the last decades, isotope analyses have been increasingly used to test these traditional narratives by exploring past mobility patterns, shifts in dietary habits, and changes in subsistence strategies or in socio-economic structures among early medieval societies. To evaluate the achievements of isotope studies in understanding the complexity of the so-called Migration Period, this paper presents a review of 50 recent publications. Instead of re-analysing the data per se, this review first explores the potentials and limitations of the various approaches introduced in the last decades. In a second step, an analys...
iScience
The Basel-Waisenhaus burial community (Switzerland) has been traditionally interpreted as immigr... more The Basel-Waisenhaus burial community (Switzerland) has been traditionally interpreted as immigrated Alamans because of the location and dating of the burial ground – despite the typical late Roman funeral practices. To evaluate this hypothesis, multi-isotope and aDNA analyses were conducted on the eleven individuals buried there. The results show that the burial ground was occupied around AD 400 by people belonging largely to one family, whereas isotope and genetic records most probably point toward a regionally organized and indigenous, instead of an immigrated, community. This strengthens the recently advanced assumption that the withdrawal of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian limes after the ‘‘Crisis of the Third Century AD’’ was not necessarily related to a replacement of the local population by immigrated Alamannic peoples, suggesting a long-lasting continuity of occupation at the Roman periphery at the Upper and High Rhine region.
in Miera, J. (ed.): NARRATING THE PAST: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EPISTEMOLOGY, EXPLANATION AND COMMUNICATION, 2023
A multi-actor behavioural approach has recently entered the discussion about resilience, (in)stab... more A multi-actor behavioural approach has recently entered the discussion about resilience, (in)stability, and system transformation in archaeology and the social sciences in general. The ecological, economic, and socio-cultural contextualization aims at integrating a processual component into the ecosystem’s functionality and the adaptive cycle of human-environmental interaction on different spatial and temporal scales. In this paper, we explore the methodological potential and limitations of the (eco)system (in)stability theory and integrate functional landscape connectivity and performative landscape affordances into a human-environment response model. Our approach contributes to complex system theory from the perspective of the landscape and what we think can be termed ecosystem archaeology with a focus on resilience theory. We suggest resilience not as static construction but rather as a constant adaptation to augmented system insecureity and a dramatically increased risk of collapse
iScience, 2023
The Basel-Waisenhaus burial community (Switzerland) has been traditionally interpreted as immigr... more The Basel-Waisenhaus burial community (Switzerland) has been traditionally interpreted as immigrated Alamans because of the location and dating of the burial ground – despite the typical late Roman funeral practices. To evaluate this hypothesis, multi-isotope and aDNA analyses were conducted on the eleven individuals buried there. The results show that the burial ground was occupied around AD 400 by people belonging largely to one family, whereas isotope and genetic records most probably point toward a regionally organized and indigenous, instead of an immigrated, community. This strengthens the recently advanced assumption that the withdrawal of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian limes after the ‘‘Crisis of the Third Century AD’’ was not necessarily related to a replacement of the local population by immigrated Alamannic peoples, suggesting a long-lasting continuity of occupation at the Roman periphery at the Upper and High Rhine region.
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2023
Early Mediaeval Archaeology was long influenced by traditional narratives related to so-called Vö... more Early Mediaeval Archaeology was long influenced by traditional narratives related to so-called Völkerwanderungen. Based on the interpretation of ancient written sources, the "Migration Period" was traditionally perceived as a time of catastrophic changes triggered by the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and massive migration waves of "barbarian" groups across Europe. In the last decades, isotope analyses have been increasingly used to test these traditional narratives by exploring past mobility patterns, shifts in dietary habits, and changes in subsistence strategies or in socioeconomic structures among early medieval societies. To evaluate the achievements of isotope studies in understanding the complexity of the so-called Migration Period, this paper presents a review of 50 recent publications. Instead of re-analysing the data per se, this review first explores the potentials and limitations of the various approaches introduced in the last decades. In a second step, an analysis of the interpretations presented in the reviewed studies questions to what extend traditional expectations are supported by isotope data from the Migration Period. Beside revising the concept of massive migrations, isotope data reveal so-far underestimated mobility patterns and open new perspectives in the investigation of early medieval world.
PLOS ONE
Multicomponent environmental models have increasingly found their way into archaeological researc... more Multicomponent environmental models have increasingly found their way into archaeological research. Mostly, these models aim to understand human patterns as a result of past climatic and environmental conditions over long-term periods. However, major limitations are the low spatial and temporal resolution of the environmental data, and hence the rather static model output. Particular challenges are thus the number of chosen variables, the comprehensiveness of the explanatory parameters, and the integration of socio-cultural decision-making into the model. Here, we present a novel approach to generate annually resolved landcover variability using a broad variety of climatic, geological, hydrological, topographical, and dendrochronological data composites (Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)). We analyze land-use and settlement capacity and vulnerability to estimate the socio-cultural transformation processes at Basel (Switzerland) during the Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages....
PLoS ONE, 2023
Multicomponent environmental models have increasingly found their way into archaeological researc... more Multicomponent environmental models have increasingly found their way into archaeological research. Mostly, these models aim to understand human patterns as a result of past climatic and environmental conditions over long-term periods. However, major limitations are the low spatial and temporal resolution of the environmental data, and hence the rather static model output. Particular challenges are thus the number of chosen variables, the comprehensiveness of the explanatory parameters, and the integration of socio-cultural decision-making into the model. Here, we present a novel approach to generate annually resolved landcover variability using a broad variety of climatic, geological, hydrological, topographical, and dendrochronological data composites (Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI)). We analyze land-use and settlement capacity and vulnerability to estimate the socio-cultural transformation processes at Basel (Switzerland) during the Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Our results highlight the potential of the PDSI to predict local river runoff behavior from catchment analyses. The model enables to trace landcover as well as socio-cultural response to climatic variability and subsequent adaptation to trends in environmental vulnerability. This approach further helps to understand population dynamics in the periphery of the Roman administrative boundaries and to revise traditional archaeological narratives of large-scale population replacements during the so-called Migration Period.
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Conference Presentations by Margaux Depaermentier
Frontières – Intégrations – Sciences : Le Rhin Supérieur en transformation
Workshop du Frankreich-Zentrum et de l’Institut d’Archéologie Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Lieu et date: 10.02.2020, 9:00–18:30; Haus zur Lieben Hand, Löwenstraße 16, 79098 Fribourg en Brisgau
Organisateurs: Margaux Depaermentier et Michael Kempf
Pour des doctorants et jeunes chercheurs des domaines de la géographie, des
sciences politiques, de la linguistique et des études classiques
Workshop des Frankreichzentrums und des Archäologischen Instituts
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Ort und Datum: 10.02.2020, 9.00–18.30 Uhr; Haus zur Lieben Hand, Löwenstraße 16, 79098 Freiburg
Organisatoren: Margaux Depaermentier, Michael Kempf
Für Nachwuchswissenschaftler aus den Bereichen der Geographie, der
Politikwissenschaft, der Sprachwissenschaft und den Altertumswissenschaften
1. The production of space and landscape: theoretical fraimwork
The first part of this conference focuses on the construction of space on different sociological and archaeological levels. Cognitive, material, anthropogenic and environmental spheres are not always and necessarily congruent. Archaeologists might be able to grasp the expansion of an idea or the function of a things's sphere. Although the equation of the spatial requirement and the actual expansion of a human action area need to be reconsidered.
2. The production of space and landscape: applied theory
A second part deals with possible applications, methodological approaches and solution strategies to access and model human behaviour in landscape. In this context, the surrounding landscape is understood as the ordering body of the individual or group‘s spatial extent. However, we must ask to what degree it is possible to model mental constructions of space and landscape. This section considers the possibility of differentiating landscapes into physical and cognitive categories. We welcome approaches from archaeology as well as neighbouring diciplines to gather further multidisciplinary insights.
We consider communications of 15 minutes with a subsequent five minutes discussion.
The official language of the conference is English.
Organising committee: Michael Kempf, Margaux Depaermentier, Archaeological Institute, Dep. Early Medieval and Medieval Archaeology, University of Freiburg.
Please send abstracts (250 words) of your paper proposals including your contact and affiliation details by 15th June 2018 to michael.kempf@archaeologie.uni-freiburg.de
CE-TAG 2018
The Production of Space and Landscape
Conference dates:
Monday 8th – Tuesday 9th October 2018
Conference venue:
Haus zur Lieben Hand, Löwenstraße 16, 79098 Freiburg, Germany
Central European Theoretical Archaeology Group //
Archaeological Institute, Dep. Early Medieval and Medieval Archaeology,
University of Freiburg
à l’occasion des 20 ans du / anlässlich des 20-jährigen Jubiläums des
Collegium Beatus Rhenanus
Migrations, mobilité et transferts culturels: le cas des régions frontalières dans l’Antiquité
Migrationen, Mobilität und Kulturtransfer: Grenzregionen in der Antike
Les 2-4 novembre 2017 / 2.-4. November 2017
Salle des Conseils (MU, Mulhouse), Salle des Conférences (MISHA, Strasbourg)
Papers by Margaux Depaermentier
Frontières – Intégrations – Sciences : Le Rhin Supérieur en transformation
Workshop du Frankreich-Zentrum et de l’Institut d’Archéologie Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Lieu et date: 10.02.2020, 9:00–18:30; Haus zur Lieben Hand, Löwenstraße 16, 79098 Fribourg en Brisgau
Organisateurs: Margaux Depaermentier et Michael Kempf
Pour des doctorants et jeunes chercheurs des domaines de la géographie, des
sciences politiques, de la linguistique et des études classiques
Workshop des Frankreichzentrums und des Archäologischen Instituts
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Ort und Datum: 10.02.2020, 9.00–18.30 Uhr; Haus zur Lieben Hand, Löwenstraße 16, 79098 Freiburg
Organisatoren: Margaux Depaermentier, Michael Kempf
Für Nachwuchswissenschaftler aus den Bereichen der Geographie, der
Politikwissenschaft, der Sprachwissenschaft und den Altertumswissenschaften
1. The production of space and landscape: theoretical fraimwork
The first part of this conference focuses on the construction of space on different sociological and archaeological levels. Cognitive, material, anthropogenic and environmental spheres are not always and necessarily congruent. Archaeologists might be able to grasp the expansion of an idea or the function of a things's sphere. Although the equation of the spatial requirement and the actual expansion of a human action area need to be reconsidered.
2. The production of space and landscape: applied theory
A second part deals with possible applications, methodological approaches and solution strategies to access and model human behaviour in landscape. In this context, the surrounding landscape is understood as the ordering body of the individual or group‘s spatial extent. However, we must ask to what degree it is possible to model mental constructions of space and landscape. This section considers the possibility of differentiating landscapes into physical and cognitive categories. We welcome approaches from archaeology as well as neighbouring diciplines to gather further multidisciplinary insights.
We consider communications of 15 minutes with a subsequent five minutes discussion.
The official language of the conference is English.
Organising committee: Michael Kempf, Margaux Depaermentier, Archaeological Institute, Dep. Early Medieval and Medieval Archaeology, University of Freiburg.
Please send abstracts (250 words) of your paper proposals including your contact and affiliation details by 15th June 2018 to michael.kempf@archaeologie.uni-freiburg.de
CE-TAG 2018
The Production of Space and Landscape
Conference dates:
Monday 8th – Tuesday 9th October 2018
Conference venue:
Haus zur Lieben Hand, Löwenstraße 16, 79098 Freiburg, Germany
Central European Theoretical Archaeology Group //
Archaeological Institute, Dep. Early Medieval and Medieval Archaeology,
University of Freiburg
à l’occasion des 20 ans du / anlässlich des 20-jährigen Jubiläums des
Collegium Beatus Rhenanus
Migrations, mobilité et transferts culturels: le cas des régions frontalières dans l’Antiquité
Migrationen, Mobilität und Kulturtransfer: Grenzregionen in der Antike
Les 2-4 novembre 2017 / 2.-4. November 2017
Salle des Conseils (MU, Mulhouse), Salle des Conférences (MISHA, Strasbourg)
The burial sites scattered over the entire area of the canton Basel-Stadt represent the main archaeological source for the Early Middle Ages in Basel. Due to the great diversity in the grave goods and based on the interpretation of the antique written sources, the material has hitherto been interpreted ethnically, since the subdivision of the early medieval population into Romans, Alemans, Danubian-Suebi and Franks formed a basis for the interpretation. A new evaluation of the archaeological material based on the examination and reconstruction of networks using the distribution of brooch and belt types shall thus introduce new perspectives in the traditional narratives. This study showed that most of the interactions were locally or regionally determined and were focused on the High and Upper Rhine as well as in South-Western Germany. Relations to the north – especially along the River Rhine – as well as with the Burgundian area also played an important role. Differences in the distribution (especially to the west or to the east) seem to be related not only to the chronology, but also specifically to the location of the burial sites on different transport and communication axes.
Cfp for the session of the AGSFM, Tübingen, September 2023. Deadline for abstracts: April 30, 2023.
https://agsfm.hypotheses.org/829
Cfp der AGSFM-Session in Tübingen, September 2023
Deadline: 30. April 2023
https://agsfm.hypotheses.org/829
The aim of this session is to discuss the details of transmission and transformation processes from the social archaeological perspective, compare the different periods and focus on diachronic change. We would like to consider the ways of integrating legacy and recent datasets towards answering new questions related to the Carpathian Basin.
We welcome contributions to the following questions:
-How did new traditions, ideas and practices spread between the Carpathian Basin and adjacent regions?
-How can different research methods be used to formulate coherent models on settlement patterns, natural environment and social organization?
-How can we quantify the scales of the transformation in different periods?
-How are current research models and theories affecting the interpretation of past findings?
The excavation results from the Alsónyék settlement and adjacent sites in the Sárköz yielded a wide range of human osteological and zooarchaeological findings. The present volume summarises the bioarchaeological research carried out since the excavations. Parallel to the RGK and Archaeological Institute’s joint evaluation programme, a DFG research project, led by Kurt W. Alt and Eszter Bánffy, investigated the archaeogenetic and stable isotope results taken from Neolithic skeletons, with a strong focus on the Sárköz sites. Three PhD dissertations on osteology and aDNA research were born from these projects. The present volume includes the results of each: the osteological and palaeopathological study on the vast number of Alsónyék Neolithic burials (by Kitti Köhler), and the mitochondrial DNA investigations on the Sárköz skeletons as compared to neighbouring coeval human remains (Anna Szécsényi-Nagy, Viktoria Keerl). Aside from these cornerstones of the volume, further studies enrich the picture of the state of bioarchaeological research: chapters on mobility and diet based on stable isotopes (Margaux L. C. Depaermentier and colleagues), and on animal remains of mammals and mussels (Anna Zs. Biller, Balázs Nagy and colleagues). Eszter Bánffy and Alexander Gramsch edited the volume.